340 X Head Value

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75DU5T3R360

75DU5T3R360

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I have a set of X heads (2531894-A and 2531894-E), both with a date code of 0218. These were restored 20 years ago by Richard Clapham and have been in storage since. He said that these were castings he had seen in many years. What was done:

1. Heads inspected before disassembly
2. Disassembled and measured valves installed heights
3. Clean heads by caustic soda heated boiling
4. Measure all valves and seat heights, record and save for assembly
5. Square head on Winona valve guide servicing tool-mill and drill out all guides and replace
6. Fit machine centering pilots exact to size and use seat measurements to cutout exhaust valve seats
7. Cut all seat angles-now has 5/15/45/70/90 just like a hemi
8. Hand grind all valve pockets to blend in new seats and to improve flow of all the valve pockets-New springs installed at 120lbs on seat and 225 @ .5”
9. Install valve to corrected portions, trim valve stems to given measurements and install seals, lube and assemble w/valve springs
10. Seat the valves to the seats and vacuum test the sealing of each valve and port-these came out perfect!

I’m hoping the Mopar community can help me determine a value for these. I will ultimately sell them, as my car is not numbers matching.

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I sold a set of early 67 "X" castings last year for $500.00. They needed a refreshing, but had stainless valves included.
 
Did you pressure test them and have them magnaflux tested?
 
U can certainly ask what u have into them plus a little interest. Start a little above what will make u happy. Then u can come down a bit to make the buyer happy. Kim
 
They have been up and down over the last several years, prices of these dropped quite a bit when the aluminum heads came out, but slowly started to climb back up in value, mainly since the restoration crowd needs them.
 
Is that surface rust on the springs? I would be interested, but you should come to number you are comfortable with. I know that sounds weird, but I only care about the castings, so they are cores to me. They are tailored to a resto guy. I’m not a resto guy.
 
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I'd say between 300-500 bucks. No one will pay much more than that, because put a little more with it and you have a pair of new aluminum heads.
 
I have a set i pulled off my 68 340 @90k miles in 1993 they were tired needed valve guides car still ran good just smoked
They match my block no way i would take 300
His heads are worth more then 600 shame about the rust
Clean them up paint them and oil them
 
i sold a set somewhat recently that needed a full rebuild and had a stripped rocker hold down for $200 and the guy couldn't give me the money fast enough.

i'd say that yours are worth easily double that, but they show signs of flash rust and have some used parts in them so they'll need to come apart for cleaning and inspection-- and probably replace the seals.

on the positive side, they've got new guides, new seats and are set up to take .550 lift.

i don't know what you've got into them and i don't know what a machinist would charge to roll thru them and clean/inspect/replace things and stuffs but the tipping point of non-ported steel heads seems to be in the $800 range. i'd throw $600 out there and see what kicks.
 
Too bad I didn't see any mention of hardened value seats installed at the time of refreshing. Would have helped with the value and resale in my humble opinion ???
 
Bennoel 10 said:
Too bad I didn't see any mention of hardened value seats installed at the time of refreshing. Would have helped with the value and resale in my humble opinion ???
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if you look at the typed document under "sixth" it says something about installing valve seats. the PN referenced comes back as a "high chromed alloy seat" and acceptable for use in converting to use of unleaded fuels.

this is outside of the purview of my expertise, but it *seems* as though that would indicate hardened exhaust seats.
 
I would not be concerned with that flash rust at all. A little phosphoric acid (ospho) will clean those right up. Im going to put a higher value on them than you guys. A set of X cores will be $300-$400 on average. With the price of machine work these days I would guess around $600 for the machine work. At the end of the day it will cost about a grand to do a set of heads.
 
I would say add $400 onto cost of machine work and that would be the price. They get naysayers due to being iron, which causes zero grief with pulleys/brackets/linkages. Is there a better factory sb head?
 
4spdragtop said:
I would say add $400 onto cost of machine work and that would be the price. They get naysayers due to being iron, which causes zero grief with pulleys/brackets/linkages. Is there a better factory sb head?
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Yes. Any of the smog era heads are as good as the X heads with 2.02 and 1.60 valves installed. Understand, I'm no naysayer. But the simple fact is, unless someone is looking for a factory correct set of early 340 heads, their value is simply not as much as people are led to believe. Now, had they been a factory closed chamber quench head with the big valves, things might be different. But take the valves out of the equation and they are just another smog era open chamber head. Just the same as a J head or any other letter head. And don't forget, some of the early J heads on 340s also came with the big valves. Now if he finds someone restoring an earlier 340 and they want the correct castings, he has them and they'll command a pretty good price. But the fact is, you can do the same with any of the other open chamber heads and in fact, the factory 360 "swirl port" 308 castings would leave the X heads behind in terms of flow and power if they were upgraded with the big valves. He needs to find the right buyer and they'll bring some money.
 
All xheads are 2.02/1.60, not all J heads are unless you've paid for valves and machine work.....so I'll go with X head value being higher. Better valving from the get go. More potential so to speak.
RustyRatRod said:
Yes. Any of the smog era heads are as good as the X heads with 2.02 and 1.60 valves installed. Understand, I'm no naysayer. But the simple fact is, unless someone is looking for a factory correct set of early 340 heads, their value is simply not as much as people are led to believe. Now, had they been a factory closed chamber quench head with the big valves, things might be different. But take the valves out of the equation and they are just another smog era open chamber head. Just the same as a J head or any other letter head. And don't forget, some of the early J heads on 340s also came with the big valves. Now if he finds someone restoring an earlier 340 and they want the correct castings, he has them and they'll command a pretty good price. But the fact is, you can do the same with any of the other open chamber heads and in fact, the factory 360 "swirl port" 308 castings would leave the X heads behind in terms of flow and power if they were upgraded with the big valves. He needs to find the right buyer and they'll bring some money.
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4spdragtop said:
All xheads are 2.02/1.60, not all J heads are unless you've paid for valves and machine work.....so I'll go with X head value being higher. Better valving from the get go. More potential so to speak.
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No sir. Some J heads came with the bigger valves. We said the same thing. Certainly the factory 2.02 head value would be higher for the resto crowd, whether it was the X or J.
 
RustyRatRod said:
No sir. Some J heads came with the bigger valves. We said the same thing. Certainly the factory 2.02 head value would be higher for the resto crowd, whether it was the X or J.
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I had a 70 340 duster. When I got it the heads had never been off it, intake either. Came with 2.02 valves. Just as good as a X head.
 
So there still aren't any factory sb heads BETTER than X?
SOME J, but not all had the 2.02
Still looks like X for the win.
 
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